British Labour Party&rsquo / s attitudes and policies towards European integration have historically oscillated between varying degrees of support for concrete integration steps and obstinate opposition to it. A major and pronounced volte-face on European policy occurred after 1983 and the aim of this study is to locate the causes of this shift in European policy and its subsequent course under &lsquo / New&rsquo / Labour period. The causes and motivations are searched within the general transformation of the party and they are assessed according to the changes in party&rsquo / s ideology and its perceptions about the needs of British national political economy. The scope of the study covers the intersection area between intra/inter-party politics and political economy. On these areas, Neo-Marxist theories of state and Regulation Approach are utilised, as well as the classical political sociology models on party politics. An historical inquiry on party policy encompassing the post-war period has been undertaken. In a similar vein, in order to compare it on ideological grounds, other European social democratic-socialist party policies are analysed alongside the British Labour case. It is argued that party&rsquo / s policy preferences are strongly influenced by and shaped according to the national socio-political institutional structure. The thesis comes to the conclusion that historical institutionalist analysis coupled with a &lsquo / structural dependency to capital&rsquo / theory offers a highly plausible explanation for the evolution of Labour Party&rsquo / s policy course on Europe, including the recent &lsquo / New&rsquo / Labour period.

This thesis is an examination of the role of reason in the thought of the left-leaning writer, publisher, editor and journalist Leonard Woolf. Examining Woolf’s response to political radicalization and impending international conflict between 1930 and 1940, this discussion contends that Woolf sought to emphasise human thought, reason and individual psychology as a response to interwar anxieties about cultural crisis. / Thesis (Master, History) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-09 13:03:11.911

Placing politics in time can greatly enrich our understanding of complex social dynamics. The question this thesis tries to answer is which mechanism led to the change in attitudes of the German Social Democratic Party and the British Labour Party towards the welfare state during the period from 1990 to 2010 and which effects in consequence these changes had on the existing welfare states. This thesis builds on the welfare state categorization work done by the Danish sociologist Gosta Esping-Andersen ("Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism"). However, the thesis focuses its in- depth analysis on Germany and the United Kingdom as prototypical conservative and liberal states. The heuristic text analysis, as well as the discourse analysis of party leader speeches, party manifestos and programmes, as well as the conducted expert interviews reveal that social, political, technological and economic changes during the given time period radically challenged and changed the norms and values of the welfare providers and with it the given welfare state, as well as the meaning, function and value of work. While many may argue that it was mainly the neo-liberal political and economic style that changed the attitude towards the welfare state, it was in fact just the trigger for a radical change in the interpretation of the basic social democratic values of freedom, justice and solidarity. This change made significant welfare state reforms inevitable and only with further changes can a balance and satisfaction within the welfare state system and within all welfare providing sectors (the state, the market, households and the third sector) be achieved. A new balanced social democratic approach for the 21st century is a ‘symmetrical welfare state’ that stands for mirror-image equality.

During the past two decades, extensive research efforts have focused on the conventional wisdom that the economy has a direct influence on a party's destiny. This hypothesis rests on the implicit assumption that the linkages between macroeconomic variables such as inflation and unemployment and party support are direct and unmediated. As the present study indicates, however, objective economic measures only serve as a proxy for the invisible force that drives voters' party support. Once the relevant variables, namely, the perceptual factors of the electorate, are controlled for, variables that describe the state of the objective economy fail to exert their "magic" on political behavior.

La thèse vise à appréhender la situation de la social-démocratie européenne et son évolution au cours des deux dernières décennies. Adoptant une approche comparatiste, elle repose sur l’étude du Parti socialiste français, du Parti social-démocrate allemand et du Parti travailliste britannique. En partant du projet de Troisième voie proposé par Tony Blair et les modernisateurs du New Labour, il s’agit de montrer la mutation doctrinale et programmatique de ces partis. Ceux-ci, avec des divergences et des spécificités nationales, ont, dans les programmes adoptés et les politiques gouvernementales menées, convergé vers une même orientation d’ensemble, marquée par un accueil beaucoup plus favorable aux thèses libérales. Cette prise de distance par rapport au modèle traditionnel pour tendre vers un paradigme social-libéral ne signifie pas pour autant l’abandon des valeurs propres à la social-démocratie. Les partis concernés ont essayé de s’adapter au nouveau contexte économique et social tout en préservant les principes et les idéaux sociaux sur lesquels ils se sont construits. Le socle identitaire de cette famille politique demeure ainsi largement préservé. Cette évolution idéologique s’accompagne d’une mutation des organisations partisanes qui l’accomplissent. Celles-ci ont connu à la fois une modification de leur sociologie, électorale et militante(caractérisée par une désaffection des soutiens traditionnels), et une diminution de leur ancrage dans la société liée à la baisse du nombre d’adhérents et à l’éloignement par rapport aux syndicats. Leur place au sein des systèmes partisans nationaux est également remise en cause : dans la recherche du bon positionnement sur l’échiquier politique, la question des alliances avec les autres partis constitue alors un enjeu essentiel. Le mode de fonctionnement de ces organisations a enfin lui aussi connu des modifications significatives. Les réformes internes menées par les dirigeants tendent à valoriser l’adhérent et accroître son rôle ; de nouvelles pratiques militantes, plus individualistes, apparaissent. La fonction et la spécificité de ces partis s’en trouvent diminuées. / The thesis aims to understand the situation of european social democracy and its evolution over the last two decades. Taking a comparative approach, it is based on the study of French Socialist Party, the German Social Democratic Party and the British Labour Party. Beginning from the Third Way project proposed by Tony Blair and New Labour modernizers, the matter is to show the doctrinal and programmatic transformation of these parties. These, with some differences and national characteristics, in the programs and policies undertaken, have converged towards the same overall direction, marked by a much more favorable reception to liberal theories. This distancing from the traditional model to move towards a social-liberal paradigm does not necessary mean the abandonment of values belonging to the Social Democrats. The parties involved have tried to adapt to new economic and social context while preserving the principles and social ideals on which they are built. The base of this political family’s identity remains largely well preserved. The ideological evolution goes with a mutation of partisan organizations who realize it. These have experienced both a change in their sociology, electoral and activist (characterized by a dis like of traditional supporters), and a decrease from their roots in society related to the decline in membership and distance against unions. Their position within the party systems is also questionned : in search of good positioning on the political spectrum, the question of alliances with other parties is then a key issue. The modus operandi of these organizations has finally also experienced significant changes. Internal reforms undertaken by the leaders tend to enhance the member and increase its role and new militant practices, more individualistic, appear. The function and specificity of these parties have diminished.